9.43 Antenna-BBU-Connector

The Antenna-BBU-Connector logical device controls three matrix switches to connect the TT&C signals of one antenna to a BBU device. These signals are two telemetry signals from the antenna to the receiver inpüuts and one telecommand signal from the BBU's modulator to the antenna.

The Antenna-BBU-Connector device is logically bound to one antenna. This may be either a movable antenna represented by an Antenna-Management device or a fixed antenna. In the latter case the name of the satellite the antenna is pointed to must be configured in the Antenna-BBU-Connector's setup.

The Antenna-BBU-Connector device permits to connect the antenna to a BBU from a given set of BBUs. The device offers only BBUs from this set, if they are capable to process the satellite this antenna is pointed to. This is either if the name of the satellite reported by the Antenna-Management device matches the satellite name configured for the particular BBU or if the BBU is marked to be a 'spare' one which may be used with any satellite.

Configuration

The configuration of the Antenna-BBU-Connector is defined in a configuration file. This file defines the list of available BBUs, the names of the matrix devices used for switching and the matrix ports the BBUs are connected to. The configuration file is mostly self explaining, here an example:

{
    "comment" : [ "Writing the comment this way",
                  "this does not mess up a picky",
                  "JSON parser" ],
    "antennas" : [
        {
            "device" : "AB-1",
            "satelliteId" : "AM-1.alias",
            "tcPort" : "01",
            "tm1Port" : "11",
            "tm2Port" : "12"
        },
        {
            "device" : "AB-2",
            "satellite" : "MY-SAT",
            "tcPort" : "02",
            "tm1Port" : "13",
            "tm2Port" : "14"
        }
    ],
    "bbus" : [
        {
            "name" : "BBU-1",
            "satellite" : "MY-SAT",
            "tcPort" : "11",
            "tm1Port" : "01",
            "tm2Port" : "01"
        },
        {
            "name" : "BBU-2",
            "satellite" : "MY-SAT",
            "tcPort" : "12",
            "tm1Port" : "02",
            "tm2Port" : "02"
        }
    ],
    "matrices" : [
        {
            "useFor" : "TC",
            "device" : "MTRX-TC"
        },
        {
            "useFor" : "TM1",
            "device" : "MTRX-TM1"
        },
        {
            "useFor" : "TM2",
            "device" : "MTRX-TM2"
        }
    ]
}

• antennas: Contains the list of antennas / Antenna-BBU-Connector devices this configuration file applies to. For each antenna the following parameters must be defined:
  • device: The name of the Antenna-BBU-Connector representing this antenna.
  • satellite: The name of the satellite the antenna points to. This parameter must be set for fixed antenna, for movable antennas it must be omitted.
  • satelliteId: The device name of the Antenna-Management device controlling this movable antenna. For fixed antennas this parameter has to be omitted.
  • tcPort: The matrix output delivering the telecommand signal to this antenna.
  • tm1Port: The matrix input this antenna feeds its telemetry 1 signal to.
  • tm2Port: The matrix input this antenna feeds its telemetry 2 signal to.
• bbus: Contains the list of BBUs which may be selected by the Antenna-BBU-Connector. For each BBU the following parameters must be defined:
  • name: The name of this BBU as shown in the selection drop down box. The name may be freely defined but should follow the restrictions applying to device names in the satnms software. It should consist of the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and the '-' character only.
  • satellite: The name of the satellite this BBU is configured to. BBUs which may be used with any satellite should have this set to "*".
  • tcPort: The matrix input receiving the telecommand signal from this BBU.
  • tm1Port: The matrix output delivering the telemetry 1 signal to this BBU.
  • tm2Port: The matrix output delivering the telemetry 2 signal to this BBU.
• matrices: Contains the list of matrices used to connected antennas and BBUs. This list must contain exactly three objects for the TC, TM1 and TM2 signals.
  • useFor: One of "TC", "TM1" or "TM2". Defines for which type of signal this matrix is used.
  • device: The device name of the matrix.

Remarks

• Satellite names must match exactly to make the Antenna-BBU-Connector work as expected. The satellite database, satellite names of fixed antennas and the satellite named defined this the BBUs must use exactly the same spelling.
• Matrix ports are to be defined in the way the matrix device driver expects them to identify the input / output parameter and setting. For most satnms matrix drivers this is a 2-digit decimal string with leading zeroes for the numbers 1 .. 9.
• The same matrix may be used to TM1 and TM2 signals. Nevertheless all three entries of the matrices list must be specified, defining the same device name for TM1, TM2.

Device window pages

The following table shows which device window pages are available with this individual device type. Tool-bar functions not mentioned here are described at the general description of device windows .

• --- Contains the switch parameter to select a BBU for this antenna.
• --- The faults page.
• --- The device info page.
• --- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters described below are set at this page.

Configuration parameters

At the maintenance page of the device window if this device there is exactly one configuration parameter to configure the device:

Variables defined by this device driver